


Adventure gone wrong

by TransparentSheepDeer



Category: Devilman (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst, Canon: Devilman Crybaby, Child Ryo, Gen, Near Death Experiences, Tw Death mention and similar themes, akira is a minor character here, children being dicks to each other, from a child's perspective this is a near death experience, fudo akira - Freeform, i need more of child ryo but also im in the mood for angst so this happened, knife tw, not as dark as it sounds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 12:18:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16743871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TransparentSheepDeer/pseuds/TransparentSheepDeer
Summary: Why did Ryo start carrying the box cutter around?





	Adventure gone wrong

Ryo dreads what the kindergarten teachers call “playtime”.

He just doesn’t know what to do with himself in that time.  _Akira_  can always occupy himself, he plays with blocks, dolls or cars, or he watches that tiresome show on TV. Ryo doesn’t like doing these things. They’re  _so_  boring.

He rather reads books. Books are interesting. And unlike people, books make sense.

This day, however, is even worse than the others, because they have to go outside.

“The weather is so nice today,” the kindergarten teachers claim.

Ryo hates it, because they don’t let him bring any books outside.

He is standing by himself on the terrace. The kindergarten teachers are sitting at a small, round table, but they pay him no mind. There’s a jug filled with lemonade on their table, and several cups. It must be for later, Ryo thinks.

He watches the other kids play. Akira and some others are playing in the jungle gym, Akira is currently hanging from that thing, and he is moving himself forward arm by arm. Ryo considers joining him; it’s nice to be around Akira. Then again, last time he tried to climb himself, he hurt his wrist and fell.

He looks at the other kids. Most of them are playing hide and seek or tag, but Ryo doesn’t like those either.

His shoulders fall. He will have to be bored.

He sits on the edge of the terrace, puts his elbows on his knees, supports his head with his hands, and stares at the ground. The grass isn’t very green in this spot. He can see some ants. If they come closer, I will stomp them, he thinks. He doesn’t want to touch them. He imagines how it’d feel if they started climbing along his legs, and he shudders. He doesn’t want the ants near him.

The ants don’t come any closer. They become boring too, so Ryo lifts his gaze to look at the others again. They are still playing tag. Akira is now climbing a tree. When one of the kindergarten teachers notices, she scolds him. Akira looks apologetic, then he goes back to the jungle gym.

Ryo wishes Akira would play with him, but he doesn’t know how to convince him about it.

He looks the other way, at the trees that are planted close to the fence. There is a slender path between the fence and the trees, the branches blocking anyone from clear sight. Yet, Ryo can spot the three boys who are making their way on that path.

He raises his head from his hands. What could they be doing?

He watches as they move back to where the path begins. The tallest one of them, Kankuro, gesticulates to the other two, then they go back.

Ryo doesn’t know what they are doing, but it looks interesting. He wants to do it too.

He stands up and goes to the entrance, gazes inside. He hasn’t set foot on this path before, actually, and now that they are doing it, he wants nothing more than to take part in it.

The boys aren’t too far away. Ryo goes after them, easily catches up. Kankuro is talking, but he can’t hear him properly. He doesn’t care too much about it though, he is just thrilled to walk on the path too.

The fence is on his right side, he can see parked cars and the street and the nearby church and some old people and there is a man who is walking his dog and lots and lots of other things, Ryo can’t even name some of them.

Thick branches are on his left side, and he tries looking for any animals, like a squirrel or a bird, but he can’t see any. Regardless, Ryo is convinced that he can spot one at any time now. Maybe he’ll even see a deer!

The trees shield him from the kindergarten teachers, he is completely on his own. The ground beneath him doesn’t have any grass, it has this light brown colour, and it looks  _exactly_  like the secret paths Ryo sees on TV.

Ryo knows he is special to have found it. No one has ever walked down this path before, he feels like an adventurer exploring a dangerous route, a route not known to mankind; it is entirely up to him to uncover the secrets it may hold.

Kankuro and the other two boys are standing in one place now. Ryo isn’t interested in their thing anymore, but he finds himself a little safer knowing they are there too. If a monster attacked right now, Ryo thinks, they’d have a chance to fight it off.

They block his way, though. He wants to go forward, so he tries squirming past them.

They only notice him now.

Kankuro gives him a look of disapproval. “Why are you here?” he demands. “You can’t come here!”

Ryo blinks at him. Why can’t he?

The next moment Kankuro pushes him. Ryo backs away, but his back reaches the fence after only two steps.

He is trapped.

He can’t go anywhere, because one boy is on his right side, the other on his left, Kankuro in front of him, the fence behind him.

Ryo doesn’t remember how, but a second later Kankuro has a knife. It is a yellow one, it is a plastic one, but it is a  _knife_. Kankuro pushes it against his throat, he pushes it harshly, so harshly that Ryo has trouble breathing because of it. His body freezes. He can’t move.

The world shrinks.

It’s only him and Kankuro.

Ryo’s eyes widen. He may stop breathing any second. The only thing he can do is looking at Kankuro.

Kankuro’s gaze is fixated on his knife, on his throat, and Ryo thinks: he will slice my throat with the knife.

Ryo stares into his eyes, as if he could convince him otherwise, but he knows it is useless. Kankuro wants to hurt him. He knows, because Kankuro’s eyes look like a shark’s eyes do. He has seen them in a documentary, and they look like those eyes, like the shark’s eyes.

Ryo knows there’s no way out of this.

Kankuro will kill him.

He will die.

Any time, Kankuro can make the final move, and the world will fade to black.

Ryo will die, and he doesn’t want to die,  because he was told he would live for a long time. He doesn’t want to die now, he wants to die later. When he is old and grumpy and wrinkly.

But Kankuro doesn’t care. His eyes glint. He is eager. He wants to see what will happen.

Ryo realizes that this is the end.

This is the last time he is alive and breathing.

He is going to die.

He is never going to be old.

He is never going to find love like in those movies.

He is never going to go on an adventure again.

He doesn’t want to die, but he has to, because Kankuro is going to kill him.

Out of nowhere, someone yells. “Leave him alone! He’s my friend!”

Ryo sees Akira. He made his way through the branches to yell at Kankuro.

The two boys at Ryo’s side both take a step back, and Kankuro finally releases him. Ryo sees him slide the yellow knife back into the sheath, he thinks he can see a boy with red hair imprinted on it.

They are letting him go now, they even avoid looking at him. But Ryo's body is still frozen. He can't make himself move, even though he wants to.

Only when Akira says: “Come!” does the spell break, and Ryo can finally command his body again.

He goes to Akira, and together they go out through the branches. Ryo is staring at the ground, he wants to be left alone, but Akira starts talking:

“Are you okay?”

Ryo looks up at him. Akira smiles at him, looks concerned. Ryo attempts returning it.

“Thanks for saving me,” he says.

Akira’s smile becomes bigger. “Of course, Ryo-chan! We’re friends, we protect each other.”

Ryo nods. That means he will protect Akira too. He wonders what he’d do if it was Akira whom Kankuro tried to kill, if it was Akira who was pinned against the fence.

The answer is obvious: He would yell at Kankuro too.

Akira asks if he wanted to play in the jungle gym, and Ryo says he did. He feels safer with Akira now, the jungle gym doesn’t scare him anymore.

He still hurts his wrists, and he still falls down, but he’s with Akira, so he doesn’t really mind.

When it is Akira’s turn to climb, Ryo rubs his wrist, and thinks about what happened. A thought crosses his mind: if he hadn't befriended Akira, he would be dead now.

He is never going near that path again. He doesn’t even want to look. He is concerned that if he looked and Kankuro noticed he would come over and pull out the knife again. Ryo thinks: he has to find a way to protect himself from him. But how? He could do it if he had a knife too, he supposes. Where could he find one?

The kindergarten teachers call them. Akira lets himself fall down, but unlike Ryo, he lands on his feet, and he doesn’t immediately start rubbing his wrist. He runs to the terrace with the other kids, and Ryo follows him.

When he arrives, he notices Kankuro and the other two are also coming. Ryo goes closer to Akira, he is next to one of the kindergarten teachers. Ryo knows that Kankuro won’t do anything if he is too far away.

They get lemonade. Ryo sips it with Akira, they sit on the edge of the terrace. It’s nice, because now no one is screaming while playing tag. Ryo hates the noise.

Then they have to head back, because the kindergarten teachers claim they needed to sleep. Ryo never understands, he isn’t tired. He spends that time lying next to Akira, who can actually fall asleep these times.

Ryo usually  _pretends_  to sleep, so no one bothers him. In reality, he watches the teachers go around. This time, they get some boxes, but they can’t open it. Ryo can’t make out their words because they speak quietly, but he thinks he hears words like “go get it” and “cut”.

One of them gets something, Ryo notices that it is yellow, and they cut the box with it.

It has to be sharp, Ryo thinks. Maybe it was a knife?

He watches carefully. Where will they put it? Maybe he can take it.

But his plan fails, as they put the thing inside their pocket, then zip it. They don’t want Ryo to get it.

The rest of the evening is uneventful. Ryo tries going to the teacher who has the thing to ask her about it, and it is explained to him that it was a box cutter, meant to cut boxes, but when he asked if he could have it she told him no, he couldn’t, it’s very sharp and he would hurt himself.

When Akira’s parents come to take them home, it occurs to Ryo that they may have a box cutter too. He gets so excited that instead of greeting them he asks:

“Do you have a box cutter at home?”

The father makes that surprised face. “I’m not sure. What do you need a box cutter for, buddy?”

Ryo shrugs. “Just interested.”

The father nods, but it is one of those wise, fatherly nods (Ryo can already make a difference between the simple and the wise, fatherly nods). The father says:

“Maybe we have one at home. You read a book about something like this, didn’t you? But you can only look at it if I am there with you or if Kaori is with you, it is very sharp.”

Ryo nods, and he tries his best to make himself look genuine.

When they get home, the father rummages through several drawers. Ryo is there next to him, but he can’t reach the shelves, so the only thing he can do is wait for him to find one. When the father says that maybe they don’t have a box cutter after all, Ryo’s spirits fall.

But then, as the father checks the last drawer, he finds their box cutter and shows it to Ryo. Ryo wants to take it into his hand, but the father doesn’t let him. Instead, he shows him how it works, how he can push the edge further out or back, or that he can break the tip off so the blade stays sharp.

No matter how many times Ryo tries, he only lets him hold it once, and only for a short time. Then he says he would put it somewhere where Ryo couldn’t accidentally find it, but Ryo knows that meant he will put it in his toolbox, the one in the garage, with the orange stripes that is very heavy, so heavy that even the father has trouble lifting it.

Ryo hopes he will be able to open it. He will stay up late, and then he will sneak into the garage and take the box cutter.

His plan isn’t flawless, though. After he and Akira are put to bed, Akira falls asleep quite easily, and Ryo is tempted to do so too. But then he remembers how Kankuro’s knife felt against his throat, and he sits up in bed to stop himself from falling asleep.

When he thinks he has done it for a long time, he starts getting out. He needs to be very quiet, because he doesn’t want to wake Akira. He sneaks out of their room, and he even manages to close the door without creaking.

But as he starts to go down the stairs, he can still hear the parents’ voices.

Ryo stops, confused. It was really late by now, they were supposed to be asleep now too.

Maybe they knew he would try and take the box cutter?

He tries sneaking past them, but they must have the sixth sense, because they both turn around to him and ask why he wasn’t in bed. Ryo counters:

“Why aren’t  _you_  in bed? It’s late for you too.”

The parents look at each other, and the mother is smiling, and she is trying to hide it, but Ryo doesn’t understand what is so funny. The father crouches down to him.

“You’re right, Ryo, it  _is_  late. We were going to bed too. We just don’t need as much sleep as you and Akira do. You have to go back to bed now, alright?”

And he holds his arm out while saying this, he wants Ryo to take it. Ryo takes it, but reluctantly. The father escorts him back to his room, and Ryo feels defeated, his plan has completely failed. The father makes him lie down in the bed, and Ryo can feel himself getting sleepier by the second. The father wishes him a good night, then leaves. Ryo can see Akira on the other side of the room, he looks so peaceful while sleeping. As much as Ryo wants to get the box cutter, he feels very tired, so he gives in.

Tomorrow, he thinks, tomorrow he will get the box cutter.

And then he will be able to protect himself. 

**Author's Note:**

> I like making Ryo a child™, you know, just a child, with child logic and childhood innocence, like come on, he deserves to be a kid too.
> 
> I usually write fanfic based on made-up scenarios but this was a lot more personal because when I was 5 this asshole threatened me with his shitty yellow peter pan plastic knife that he got from the happy meals menu. This sounds funny now but lemme tell you it was really terrifying when he did that.
> 
> Anyway, kudos and comments are appreciated!! How did the fic make you feel? :D


End file.
